This is an idea I’ve been toying with as an expansion for the regular Quest rules. Please leave comments on the strengths an weaknesses of this idea.
Please feel free to plagerise concepts all you want. If you can bothered giving me a nod in any publications using this material then great. If you want to give me money, I’ll take it!
Quest - Flipside
Quest rules expansion
Modules often call for NPC “parties” of Orcs and their ilk. They are often very much like a party & sometimes don’t even encounter the party face to face. Why can’t these parties, with player party goals, just be played by PC’s? Because they often represent the “bad” side. If you look at it differently it’s simply a difference of culture. What is culturally acceptable for a group to do? This is what divides their goals.
The culture difference is often simply racial, ie. Orks have a goal because it benefits Orks, and that goal is often opposed by the “player” side because it benefits the “player” side to do so.
So how do we “player” party the “flipside” of Quest? Simple really. What’s your cultural perspective? Typically the NPC’s are monstrous races, orks, trolls, undead etc. They simply have a different cultural perspective than other races.
We already have cultural flipsides in game, represented by the Morquendi Elves, and the Trollkin… so do we have room for a couple (few) more? And so we look at the flipside.
Orks are stupid, too stupid to be played by players but they do have cousins, for arguments sake called Uruks. They are smarter than Orks, and could fill the racial flipside of Dwarves. For 5cp they might have 4HP, Die Hard and Undisciplined minds (-5mp) or some such? They would require green-dark skin (paint or mask) and possibly lower jutting fangs as racial costume.
Occasionally a necromancer abandons/loses their horde of undead, and a small proportion of them retain their original soul. When abandoned/lost they regain their free will and band together, and over time this has created a new society, the Forgotten. Not true undead but not living these forgotten souls seek acceptance in the unforgiving and misunderstanding world. For 3-5cp they might be the most mistrusted race, suffer 50% penalty (rounding down) from healing spells and be immune to sleep, charm and fear. Base 4HP. They would require heavy makeup or a mask as racial costume. They are the flipside to humans. Tentatively I would be keen to make them even more interesting by giving them a “FEED” ability, by which they can regain 1HP by eating parts of a recently deceased corpse (including undead). Usable once per combat and the corpse must be freshly killed (within 5 minutes). Player cannot carry around bits to feed on. Feeding takes 1 minute and needs to be role-played. If this was to be used I would suggest that they cannot benefit from magical healing for 10 minutes after using this ability. One would suggest they also can’t bleed to death, not having biology and all. Also vulnerable to Turn Undead (Major) only.
Morquendi are already the flipside to Quendi Elves, Trollkin are kind of neutral to both but given their Troll blood fit the monstrous part.
As an expansion to the racial costumes Elves (both types) should require pointed ears and the Morquendi should have a small indication to indicate their dark nature. The piece of nature should be in addition to this or discarded.
Trollkin should require a mask or further costume such as tusks (lower fangs) and face paint to designate them as inhuman (a piece of stone isn’t enough). Skin tone could vary green-grey to blue?
Rules of Engagement
At present we don’t encourage or rather definitely don’t encourage members of parties to betray or harm other party members and Flipside races are not immune to that clause. However if they are playing on the other side of the fence then there’s bound to be conflict sooner (more than likely) or later.
How can we mitigate this in game? We assign territory to each. Kingdom(s) for Elves, Dwarves, and Humans. Border lands to be contested. Savage Enclaves for the others.
Within the areas defined as Zelandia there would exist border lands… not officially part of any Kingdom, and in the wild lands beyond lie the Savage Enclaves.
So a Quest game might normally be held in the many Realms of Quest, within the Kingdoms of Zelandia, the border lands or in the Savage Enclaves. All 3 might be represented in a game, with the borders of each “faction” being marked CLEARLY in some manner (like flags in pairs on either side of pathways).
Each faction also requires a “Tavern or Inn” to function as a safe house. It is assumed to be full of people from that faction and is therefore not subject to being raided or robbed. Only those of that faction may enter it. This can also be expanded to a cordoned village, which again would be assumed to be fully populated and guarded.
In an opposed factions land a player is able to be attacked by the opposing faction if they so choose, unless they come under a banner of truce. They don’t have to be listened to, and may simply be ejected from the area. The banner of truce is not to be misused, constituting an act of war… your faction leader will have you hung (dead with no return) for breaching its conditions.
In border lands, or contested lands, challenges may be issued and if accepted then the accepter sets the duel conditions. Upon defeat the losing party must leave the immediate area (if not dead). Attacking outside of the Challenge constitutes an act of war and your faction leader will have you hung (unless you orders of war… in which war has been declared and all courtesies are suspended)
Aiding or interfering with a duel constitutes an act of war.
If the other side breaks the rules of engagement then the affected party may retaliate without breaking the rules of engagement themselves.
The offending party is still responsible regardless of whether they are counter-attacked or not. The offender’s only real options are to surrender for judgment, or flee to their own lands and do some serious groveling or plea bargaining a settlement for their actions. Players which fail to account for their actions will eventually be hunted down as outlaws.
First time offenders will often see leniency, 3rd strike will result in permanent death (unless you can afford a massive bribe)
True NPC’s
True NPC’s would largely be exempt from some of the conditions, because they either are not aligned to either faction (free agents) or they just don’t care. The usual canon fodder of Orks, Undead, villagers etc. are unlikely to be concerned with the rules of the two greater societies. Of course this means either faction could hire them to attack each other without fear of reprisal or that they will attack the players as part of plot outlines without hindering the game.
More Rules?
The beauty of this expansion to Quest is the minimal increase in rules beyond the Rules of Engagement and new races.
The current classes require virtually no change to incorporate the new races, although it is kind of weird that we might have Forgotten or Orcish Paladins.
CoE still works much the same; however flipside races may have cultural differences that mean CoE is interpreted differently.
Furthermore Quest games not need to be set up to incorporate Flipside rules every game but Flipside characters could easily adventure along regular players as there’s nothing to stop individual ‘faction’ members from co-operating. I mean we’re all a bit mercenary anyways… and it does provide a fun bit of role-playing… mistrust, poorly hidden prejudice, cautious discovery, barely contained hatred…
Spells
A new game item generated by a spell “Safe Helm” could allow combat between factions without the drawbacks of character death and being stripped of all the items worked so hard to get. It would be a one off get out of jail free card and be available at the town centre at a cost (say 50gp).
This spell/item would trigger when the holder of the token was dropped to 0HP or less, instantly teleporting them to the nearest safe point or “Tavern or Inn” for their faction. It would also apply First Aid thereby returning them to 0HP. After 1 minute they would regain 1HP and find a healer to rejoin the game.
Subjects returned this way should suffer a penalty for a period of time i.e. weakened and unable to use magic or something suitable.
Summary
New races
Uruks 5CP, 4HP, Diehard, -5mp
Forgotten 3-5CP, 4HP, 50% Healing penalty,(Feed?), Immunities: Sleep/Charm/Fear
Rules of Engagement
Faction hostility within borders of Kindoms of Zelandia, Savage Enclaves, Borderlands.
Faction Towns, Taverns & Inns (Faction safe areas)
Flag of Truce/Parley
Challenge rules in Borderlands.
Acts of War
First time offenders will often see leniency, 3rd strike will result in permanent death (unless you can afford a massive bribe)
Spells
Safe Helm – A teleport to safety in times of dire need (6th level)